Five Technology Trends that Change Everything in Curriculum Design

Social Production

• Production costs have gone to “0” in the digital age. Learners are now producers of content; not simply consumers of content.
  
• Examples: blogs, wikis, podcasts, and video production systems
  
• Social production technology provides learners with the opportunity to “learn to do.”
  

Social Networking

• Social networks enable affinity groups that build learning.
  
• Examples: Facebook, Ning, and eLGG
  
• Social networking provides learners with identity building tools; the opportunity to “learn to be.”
  

The Semantic Web

• Web 3.0 tools are emerging that make the Internet a powerful repository of knowledge.
  
• Examples: Photosynth and ”friend of a friend” (FOAF) applications.
  
• The semantic web provides learners with an increasing efficiency to acquire knowledge; the opportunity to “learn to know.”
  

Media Grids

• Media grids create virtual worlds and 3D simulation environments
  
• New technologies make virtual world processing inexpensive and practical.
  
• Examples: SecondLife or MPK20 Wonderland (from Sun Microsystems)
  
• 3D simulations and virtual worlds have the potential to permanently alter our sense of time and space in learning environments.
  
• 3D simulations and virtual worlds amplify learners’ opportunities to “learn to do” and “learn to be.”
  

The “New Zoo” Metaphor for Knowledge Creation

• Biology opens new windows on the world of information and knowledge creation.
  
• Decoding the human genome is a significant development in our understanding of knowledge. The rate of new knowledge is on pace to grow at unheard of exponential rates.
  
• The biology metaphor for knowledge creation amplifies learners’ opportunities to “learn to know.”